Coffee Companion -- 7/19: O's pitchers get shelled by Red Sox

Each morning, Monday through Friday, I'll hook you up with reading material to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday -- that way I'll have an excuse to do the same at the start of mine.

12. Alex Ovechkin "was shocked" -- in a good way -- by the Capitals’ flurry of offseason moves [Capitals Insider]

You said it:

"This is a great sports town and I think people are starved to watch a winner; a team folks feel they can pull for. After the depressing reality of another O's season gone into the crapper, folks were excited about the possibility of world cup championship. I think that was reflected in the size of the viewing crowd around town." -- reader johnthebodiless2000 gives his take on why Baltimore had the best ratings in the U.S. during the Women's World Cup final

Video of the morning:

This backwards penalty kick was entertaining, but I have no idea how it actually worked [Via Dirty Tackle]

Send me your funny and/or interesting links, photos, YouTube videos, blogs, Tweets, comments, emails, ideas, etc. If I deem them to be worthy for the blog, I’ll give you a plug. You can reach me at Matt.Vensel@baltsun.com and twitter.com/mattvensel.

UPDATE: Check out a photo gallery of images from Joe Flacco's wedding here. The photos can also be found on the website of photographer Jason Prezant, but the site has been inaccessible due to the high interest in the Flacco pictures.

Watching their season go up in flames, the last-place Orioles have stopped, dropped and are now rolling into the All-Star Break. They are 13 games below .500 and 15 behind the Yankees in the AL East. The blue skies we saw over Camden Yards at the home opener have been replaced by smoke clouds,...

The College of DuPage needs to set aside at least $2.85 million in the coming year to cover legal fees associated with various criminal and internal investigations at school, according to a new budget analysis.

Now there are two: Zimbabwe identified a bow-hunting gynecological oncologist from Pennsylvania on Sunday as its suspect in what it calls the illegal killing of a lion in April, adding to the outcry over the Minnesota dentist the African government wants to extradite for killing a well-known lion...